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Mythic Messenger by Bill Reid at the Canadian Museum of Civilization

1996 - Gatineau, Canada

The  Large Field of View systems have been used to digitize large sculptures.

Figure 1: Mythic Messengers was scanned using the Large Field of View camera mounted on a custom designed telescopic tripod which can be raised to a height of 10 meters.

Mythic Messengers, a bronze sculpture by the artist Bill Reid, measures 9 m in length, is 1.2 m high and is mounted 4 m above ground level on an exterior wall of the Canadian Museum of Civilization. As shown in the image at the left, Mythic Messengers was scanned using the Large Field of View camera mounted on a custom designed telescopic tripod which can be raised to a height of 10 meters. Scans of over 100 different views were recorded on the complex sculpture at a resolution in the order of 1 mm. These views were then merged into a single 3D image as shown below. The image data was also used to fabricate a scale replica.

Figure 2: The Large Field of View scanner is mounted on pan and tilt unit on the telescoping tripod. The system also includes a video camera to facilitate remote positioning of the scanner.

Figure 3: To digitize Mythic Messengers (top), over 100 scans were recorded from different views at a resolution of approximately 1 mm, by moving the tripod along the face of the scuplture. These scans, shown by the different colours (middle) were merged into a 3D digital model of the sculpture (bottom).